Mafia recruits delinquent youths to control their violence

Evidence

The mafia never hesitates to exploit incipient delinquency. … “Who encouraged you to join [the mafia]? ” Vincenzo Marsala was asked in court. He replied, in dialect: “Cavalier Buongiorno did. He initiated me and Macaluso… They initiate these picciotti whose heads are not quite in the right place, who do stupid things, and may end up stealing” … Antonino Calderone describes how two men were initiated into the Catania family in order that they might be kept under control “because both of them were killing an incredible number of people just on a whim” (AC: III, 642). — Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Business of…, 178

Categorization

• XREF: Initiation as a control mechanism for uncontrollable violent actors parallels the private-enforcement model where the protection firm internalizes external threats to neutralize them.